Disney Checkout Challenge Review: Check This Out

The Good

Tons of Disney in-jokes.

Fast, frantic, fun.

Very easy to play.

The Bad

Action quickly grows repetitive.

Though humanity doesn’t harbor any superhero or mutant sub-species, grocery store checkout people are a level above ordinary folk. They’re forced to stand in one spot while enduring great physical and mental torment, including feet that cry in pain, irate children that cry in their faces, and irritated customers that believe cashiers control food prices like some kind of nametag-wearing Illuminati.

Disney Checkout Challenge cuts the irate customers out of its formula (thank you, Great Mouse), but the frantic pace and sweaty palms common to grocery store check-out jobs are still present in this arcade / reflex game. It’s intense, but you’ll enjoy it even if you’ve already given up years of your life to a cash register. That’s saying a lot.

In Disney Checkout Challenge, various food items slide down a conveyor belt. You must tap each item as it approaches. Doing so zooms in on the item, and from there you flip it around and look for the elusive bar code. Once the bar code is facing up, it scans automatically and is quickly bagged. Then you move on to the next item.

Needless to say, the longer you play, the faster the action gets (think of it as a sudden Thanksgiving and Memorial Day rush bundled into one awful shift). There are other challenges to deal with as well. As you level up from a part-timer to a full-time worker (you lucky dog), the grocery store gets more items on its shelves.

New food packages means discovering and remembering the bar code locations for a constant stream of new items. What’s more, you gradually need to deal with loose produce like apples by tapping in a code instead of scanning them.

Time management and lightning reflexes are everything in Disney’s Checkout Challenge. If you can’t keep up with the rush, items will spill off the belt and smash on the floor. If that happens, the game is over, and your manager presumably boots you out of the joint with a Vince McMahon-like roar (“YEEEER FIIIIIIIRED!”).

Disney’s Checkout Challenge is a great distraction for when you’re stuck in a grocery store line yourself. It’s not very deep, obviously, and checking out reams of food gets repetitive pretty quickly, but the fun is hot and intense for those few games you’ll play before taking a break.

There are in-jokes galore for Disney fans, too. Nearly all the food items are related to a Disney property, including Mickey Mouse ice-cream sandwiches, Wreck-It Ralph cereal, and wheels of cheese with The Three Caballeros printed on the label. There are even cups of apple sauce branded with the Wicked Queen from Snow White, which is both hilarious and morbid.

Disney Checkout Challenge will keep you on your toes and entertained, if only for a few minutes at a time. Scanning item after item can only remain fun for so long, but at least you’re not obligated to play the game for eight hours straight for the sake of a crummy paycheck.